Feeling Discouraged

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

While we do constantly learn, in all that we do, I think there is a curve in the learning - a beginner and an expert learn differing amounts from doing the same thing. There is also a point on the curve where selling is something that is fair to paying customers (the attitude of buyer beware in the USA aside) and I don't think that someone is at that point if they are still getting the hang of something.

Would you want someone who is getting the hang of it working on your house or car with out support? Or a surgeon who is still getting the hang of it with no senior doctor there to help? Or something lighter, like someone who is still getting the hang of it doing your dry cleaning as their own business? Sure, you don't have to use them again if they do a bad job, but that doesn't mean you haven't wasted your time and money (and maybe ruined some clothes!) because they were running ahead of themselves.

ETA- you also need to check out your blurb, as I think you even go beyond cosmetic claims in to Drug claims :eh:

 

[IrishLass]

You don't even know how your soaps will be in 3 months or 6 months.

I highly recommend you at the very least give your soaps time to be tested.

Herein lies the crux of the matter. Handmade soap is a curious thing in that problems don't always reveal themselves until weeks or months have gone by.....problems such as DOS, scent fading, scent morphing, color morphing, warping, etc..... And since customers don't always use the soap that they buy right away, it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the bar of soap to be icky by the time they finally get around to using it.

I always advise waiting a year before selling in order to give oneself the time to get to know all the in's and out's of their formula and their scents and colors so that they don't short-change themselves or their customers.


IrishLass

 

[Susie]

Before you start thinking that bad soap will only affect your business(and it will), it does also affect the rest of us. I have family members that will not try my soap because they had a bad experience with someone else's hand made soap. Selling soap before it is properly cured, high cleansing/low conditioning, DOS all affect your bottom line, and everyone else's reputation. I don't even sell my soap, and it is affecting mine.

 

[pamielynn]

***And since customers don't always use the soap that they buy right away, it's definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the bar of soap to be icky by the time they finally get around to using it.**

This is a straight-up fact. Just this past week, I made a home delivery to a customer, who dragged me inside to show me her "collection" of my soaps. She's got THREE containers of soap that she keeps for when people visit her so she can send them home with soap. Her personal soaps are in another closet. Thought it was a *little* strange, but she talks up my soap so much that I'm not making any judgments, ha ha. But, this is a perfect example of how you never know what a customer does with your product.